Lisbon Diaries: The Palacio Nacional de Pena, Sintra

Sintra is a picturesque town set amidst he pine covered hills of the Serra de Sintra, just west of Lisbon. It is home to a lot of monuments and historic buildings because the slightly cooler climate attracted the nobility and elite of Portugal who constructed palaces, extravagant residences and highly decorative gardens.

We caught the train from Rossio railway station in central Lisbon to Sintra, the journey taking around 45 minutes.

Perhaps the most famous building there is the Palacio Nacional de Pena (The Feather Palace). It is a flamboyant complex that was commissioned by the very artistic King Ferdinand II. Each section of the exterior is individually styled with vivid colours, fine carvings and beautiful tiles and mosaics.

The palace is probably at the highest point in Sintra. We caught a bus from the centre of Sintra up the very narrow streets to the top. There are several hop-on, hop-off services which afford a circular route around the town and the option to visit several other landmarks and attractions.

Access to the palace is unlimited and in parts it is quite precarious. Health and safety there is, (rather refreshingly), not an issue and the narrow walls, arches and turrets made for great viewing places.

The Moorish Castle (Castelo dos Mouros) could clearly be seen from the top of the palace and was one of the stops on the circular bus tour.

Sintra was a fascinating and beautiful place to visit. We spent the afternoon there and felt we should have spent a full day so we could have seen more of the town itself.

Trains between Sintra and Rossio are frequent and efficient and Rossio station itself is beautiful and more than worthy of a photograph.

When we returned it was twilight and had started to rain but we were thankful of a dry, if cloudy and windy few hours high up on the hills of Sintra.